3.3.7. Mellamon

3.3.7. Mellamon

Mellomveien is the road at Lademoen in Trondheim that stretches from Innherredsveien to Thomas von Westens gate at Lilleby stop. Mellomveien 17 and 19 was once a social security housing, managed by the housing foundation in Trondheim. They terminated the lease agreement with Trondheim municipality for two blocks in Mellomveien. The housing foundation then collaborated with the Svartlamo(e)n Housing Foundation to rent out housing in those blocks because of Svartlamo(e)n’s operating model (Narvestad, Nielsen, Forshaug, 2020) with its emphasis on communal sharing, resident democracy, diversity, affordable rent, and “do it yourself” principles which helps keeping operating expenses, hence rents lower. Similar to Svartlamon, the residents collectively decide on how they want their community to be and shape the development of the area.

The buildings consist of 30 one-bedroom apartments (45 m2), eight family apartments (90 m2), and potential for building community spaces. The family apartments were a merger of two single apartments. The tenants had the freedom to merge the apartments horizontally or vertically, paint the inside and outside of the buildings. (Narvestad, Nielsen, Forshaug, 2020). Additionally, in front of and at the rear of the buildings there are outdoor areas that the residents are free to shape and develop as they want. There is a lift in the blocks and all apartments have their own balcony. In the basement of each block, there are storage rooms and common laundry rooms. On the sides of the blocks, there is green spaces that can be developed into common spaces. The local area hopes to create a family-friendly atmosphere in this project, especially for children.

Currently, Mellamon operates as an additional ‘neighbourhood’ to Svartlamon but it is currently unclear whether the residents will have the right to participate in the residents’ association in line with the other neighborhoods that make up Svartlamoen . It could either continue to operate as an extended neighbourhood of Svartlamon, or could have their own residents association by themselves. It is in itself an experimental idea of expanding the values of Svartlamon. Its success or failure could give good insights to how third sector housing can expand in cities like Trondheim.

Figure 32: Mellamon’s location, Authors 59 | Trondheim | Svartlamo(e)n

Martine’s House

The groups scheduled a meeting with one of our closest contacts in Svartlamo(e)n, Martine, who helped us a lot throughout this entire project, both in understanding and with providing valuable data. She has been a highly appreciated resource. She took part of the group into her house and showed us the newer area named Mellamon. This was a wonderful experience to get this close and see their plans for the addition of Svartlamo(e)n. As said, Mellamon is a new addition to the Housing Organization and most of the apartments are still empty; this means that the data and knowledge acquired from Mellamon does not properly symbolize and reflect those living in Svartlamo(e)n. It is a modern block compared to the rest of Svarlamo(e)n, but they hope to make the outside and the shared areas of the block much more like the rest of Svartlamo(e)n’s ideology, which means being free for use and easily accessible for everyone.

Those involved in the deicion making process of Mellamon wanted to remove some of the pavement, make greener areas, keep the lawn open for BBQs and other sorts of gatherings, and to provide the kind of openness that Martine was able to experience when she lived in Svatlamo(e)n.

There are also two apartments dedicated for communal use, both being located on the first floor of both the blocks. This will host one apartment for kids or at least be kids friendly, and one decorated and constructed for more adult activities. Mellamon’s plan is to make the lawns connected to these apartments accessible from both common apartments as well. Since some of our group members are construction engineers, we saw that removing this pavement to have more lawn might be against the fire regulations, so we are not sure if this kind of action will be allowed regarding accessibility for the fire trucks and the recycling bins (as pictured).

60 | Trondheim | Svartlamo(e)n Figure 33: Mellamon, Magnus Helvig Klefos Johannessen

Inside Martine’s apartment there were several changes to note, she had torn down the walls between the two apartments to make one big one apartment that consisted of bedrooms for the kids, as well as a big bedroom for the two adults living there. Additionally, there are two makeshift living rooms, one bar area, and one area for more everyday use. For the group members that got to visit, this apartment seemed much bigger than expected. From the information gathered from the other interviews, formal and non-formal and from the various analysis’ around the socio-economic data the apartment is bigger than what you will normally get at Svartlamo(e)n, this was not a tight space at all.

61 | Trondheim | Svartlamo(e)n Figure 34: Mellamon Apartment Interior, Magnus Helvig Klefos Johannessen